This Is What a Mob Looks Like

I am not the first to note the vast differences between the Wall Street protesters and the tea partiers. To name three: The tea partiers have jobs, showers and a point.

No one knows what the Wall Street protesters want — as is typical of mobs. They say they want Obama re-elected, but claim to hate “Wall Street.” You know, the same Wall Street that gave its largest campaign donation in history to Obama, who, in turn, bailed out the banks and made Goldman Sachs the fourth branch of government.

This would be like opposing fattening, processed foods, but cheering Michael Moore — which the protesters also did this week.

But to me, the most striking difference between the tea partiers and the “Occupy Wall Street” crowd — besides the smell of patchouli — is how liberal protesters must claim their every gathering is historic and heroic.

They chant: “The world is watching!” “This is how democracy looks!” “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for!”

At the risk of acknowledging that I am, in fact, “watching,” this is most definitely not how democracy looks.

Sally Kohn, a self-identified “community organizer,” praised the Wall Street loiterers on CNN’s website, comparing the protest to the Boston Tea Party, which she claimed, “helped spark the American Revolution,” adding, “and yes, that protest ultimately turned very violent.”

First of all, the Boston Tea Party was nothing like tattooed, body–pierced, sunken-chested 19-year-olds getting in fights with the police for fun. Paul Revere’s nighttime raid was intended exclusively to protest a new British tea tax. (The Wall Street protesters would be more likely to fight for a new tax than against one.)

Revere made sure to replace a broken lock on one of the ships and severely punished a participant who stole some of the tea for his private use. Samuel Adams defended the raid by saying that all other methods of recourse — say, voting — were unavailable.

Our revolution — the only revolution that led to greater freedom since at least 1688 — was not the act of a mob.

As specific and limited as it was, however, even the Boston Tea Party was too mob-like to spark anything other than retaliatory British measures. Indeed, it set back the cause of American independence by dispiriting both American and British supporters, such as Edmund Burke.

George Washington disapproved of the destruction of the tea. Benjamin Franklin demanded that the India Tea Co. be reimbursed for it. Considered an embarrassment by many of our founding fathers, the Boston Tea Party was not celebrated for another 50 years.

It would be three long years after the Boston Tea Party when our founding fathers engaged in their truly revolutionary act: The signing of the Declaration of Independence.

In that document, our Christian forebears set forth in blindingly clear terms their complaints with British rule, their earlier attempts at resolution, and an appeal to the Supreme Judge of the world for independence from the crown.

There is no comparison between a swarm of washed up radicals and clueless students (Who 20 years from now will probably be looking back at their participation and wondering what possessed them to join.) and the American Revolutionaries, and the modern-day Tea-Partiers.

Edgar Valderrama

Suck the world and your own people dry – great values!

http://www.nightmist.us/study/ Axe

A perfect description of the protesters.

guest

Aww, the tea partiers are jealous now that the right to free assembly guaranteed by the First Amendment they typically revere is taken up in full force by the "left"–very amusing to see the anger and happy to get the last laugh

This will happen for several reasons:

(1) the Occupy movement is only growing, recently joined by labor, police, nurses, and other groups representing hundreds of thousands of people; also note how sites are springing up all over the country, and it's a true occupation, not a measly protest here and there: the people are strong and they will stand as long as it takes!

(2) tea partyism is only declining esp. as mentioned in several recent polls that only 20-23% of Americans have a favorable view of the Tea Party

(3) the Occupy movement is finally finding a collective message and voice (yes, amorphous at first but now its message is clear: we need our democracy back from corporate corrupted politics)

(4) the Occupy movement will propel the next election forward and the results will not look good for those who continue to support benefits for the rich and cuts for the remaining 99%.

UCSPanther

The only thing I see happening is a pack of radicals trying to recapture the glory days they had in the '60s and '90s…

davarino

yawn….. ya its sweeping the nation. All my neighbors and friends and family are joining in. Its a fight to the death, a monumental struggle, four more years of change.

Hehe ya I'm right there with ya. I think it is great how all the unions are joining in the fight to get more of my money…..yeah!!! Most likely they get more money than all the other schmucks in the crowd but some how they are all in solidarity?

Just hold on, change is coming and everything will be ok.

Edgar Valderrama

You don't want change; you fear change.
You want the status quo and (unless you are one of top 1%) you enjoy bending over and being reamed. (or you'd be out there protesting)

davarino

Oh change is coming, while dragging the democrats kicking and screaming the whole way. Your going to get some of the changes you want but the rest of the change is going to set the "liberals" back about 30 or 40 years. So enjoy your little party while you can.

StephenD

Guest,
It sounds like it's time for your meds. You should go ahead with your coloring books or naming of your toes for all the sense you make here. It's ok…adults will continue to speak after looking over their shoulders at you and saying to themselves "aww, look; Isn't it cute how he thinks he's contributing?"

Edgar Valderrama

Of course guest makes no sense to brainwashed conformists like you.
A Pox on Both Your Houses!
(At least the lefties realize this country is already falling off the cliff into the abyss}

davarino

And wanting to drive it the rest of the way.

alexander

in this case, "guest" stands for "leftist imbecile came here to poo". Go to Kuba or North Korea – what you want is already there. But you love the fruits of capitalism, so you will not, you double-face cretin.
All protests are inspired by FuBAR Ack.
MSM news: 10k leftists – WOW! Crowd!!! TWO MILLION Tea Party people gathering – "nothing to report". Communist "logic".

Edgar Valderrama

A little bit of the light of reason hurts your conformist brainwashed KOCH BROS. world view. May it dissipate some of the delusional shadows you live under.

TexExpatriate

Pretty clearly to this professional mental health practitioner, you live on a planet in your own delusioned head. The "Ocupy movement" is not growing; it is being supplemented by paid union thugs. (Incidentally, if you had facts at hand to read, you'd know that unions are fast disappearing in America, and for good reason.) The phenomenon you call tea partyism is not declining but growing, and up to now has outnumbered every other protest in the nation. If the "Occupy momvement" is finding a collective message, it is because the collectivist message is being handed out to them by community organizers like Obama—socialists following the Alinsky method. Finally, where do you see any evidence that the "Occupy movement" will propel the next election forward and crush the rest of us, the vast majority? It ain't there. All the evidence says the opposite: that you Marxists will be wiped out, and quite likely your party (also known as the Democratic Party) will be crushed for many many years.

mlcblog

you wish

http://www.nightmist.us/study/ Axe

"the people are strong and they will stand as long as it takes"

You're not "the people."

davarino

and they are going to stand as long as Soros keeps sending in the hot dogs and sodas.

tanstaafl

You meant organic food and spring water, right?

Stephen_Brady

Full force?

A few communist wannabes and latter-day hippies, and you use the term "full force"?

Steven Plaut

Fellow Conservatives!

Occupy Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley!

Evict the hippies and spread the revolution!

Ryan

Sorry, I can't afford the time off work.

Stephen_Brady

True! And I, for one, would be worried what I would catch on Telegraph Avenue …

“Guest” han no clue about wealth creation. Typical leftist loser. He lives off the profit motive (as do we all) then wants to destroy it. LOSER. Put your money where your mouth is idiot and move to Cuba like a man.

davarino

I love Ann, she has a way of getting right to the point and leaving the opposition calling her names because they have nothing else to say.

Edgar Valderrama

There's plenty to say but I doubt it will penetrate thick conservative skulls.
I came from a stock holding family and didn't see the light till I was way over 50. Maybe there's still hope for you and this bunch of masochists that lick the hand that robs them.
Too bad Anarchy is self destructive as it is the only individualistic theory. (it will have to wait till the human race transcends its conservative stone age mentality – you righties are correctly classified under the same heading as the Nazis.

davarino

Over 50 and still havent wised up. The sixties aint over for you yet aye? Well maybe you can start getting that communist workers paradise yet.

Kevin Stroup

Nazis were socialist Ed. You should try reading your history more.

Edgar Valderrama

(In case you're still around) from Wikipedia:
"Initially Nazi political strategy focused on anti-big business, anti-bourgeois, and anti-capitalist rhetoric, though such aspects were later downplayed in the 1930s to gain the support from industrial owners for the Nazis, focus was shifted to anti-Semitic and anti-Marxist themes."
Does that fit your definition of "Socialism?"

Edgar Valderrama

(In case you're still around) from Wikipedia:
Initially Nazi political strategy focused on anti-big business, anti-bourgeois, and anti-capitalist rhetoric, though such aspects were later downplayed in the 1930s to gain the support from industrial owners for the Nazis, focus was shifted to anti-Semitic and anti-Marxist themes.

http://www.nightmist.us/study/ Axe

Me too. Go Ann!

Dirkster

The Wall Street protesters are the new spokespeople for the Democratic Party. Watch them close. Note their tactics. Listen to their logic or lack there of. Allow them to be the voice of the Democrats. Give them as long of a leash as they need. Let them run wild in the streets. Let the country see in full view what they stand for. Then let the citizens of this country decide who they want for leaders. We should have zero fear of these Wall Street Mobs. When the dots get connected from these mobs to the Dem's nothing more will need said. Dirk Lemmons

tagalog

I don't know about fear; in the end, if they revolt, they're still gun control nuts and we're just gun nuts.

But apprehension, yes, we should have that. The rebels of the 1960s were allowed to run wild, and they have gone far, far along on a journey of destruction of the values that made the United States a great nation.

Edgar Valderrama

Suck the world and your own people dry – great values!
VIVA LA CORPORACION!!!

Edgar Valderrama

Values like screw the rest of the world and your neighbor too, of you can get away with it.
And. Don't tell me to go somewhere else, I already have, though as a natural born Anarchist I detest ALL governments.

Sound&Fury

So you detest all governments? What's your alternative?

Edgar Valderrama

Good question. As I'm 86 I'll just have to hope reincarnation is true and the human race has evolved to where it doesn't need governing by my next time around. (not much of a solution, eh?)

Sound&Fury

Exactly. Which is why I recommend to you the practical wisdom of Winston Churchill, when he spoke to the House of Commons in November, 1947:
"Many forms of Goverment have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.…"

http://www.nightmist.us/study/ Axe

Where did you get that patience?

I am hereby in favor of forced patience redistribution

tagalog

So if you detest all governments, you surely understand how idiotic and misguided the Occupy Wall Street morons are. After all, it's the government that bailed out the bankers and auto manufacturers, instead of standing aside and letting them to go into Chapter 11 bankruptcy, reorganize, and get back on the capitalist track. It's the government whose monetary policies are impoverishing our country, not the corporations.

It's the government in the person of President Obama that has taken the position that there are businesses that are "too big to fail," and must therefore be subsidized by taxpayer dollars instead of being left to make their living by selling a product or service or drop out of their market.

There's plenty about corporations that could change, but it's the government that has created the economic fix we've been in for the past three years.

That "screw the world" attitude you refer to is the attitude of the government, not the attitude of corporate businessmen, who depend on the good will of their clientele.

http://apollospaeks.blogtownhall.com/ ApolloSpeaks

!THE SHUTDOWN AMERICA MOVEMENT AND THE BIG 99% LIE

Now that the bloodless revolution is failing to save America from capitalist greed and inequality the persuasion of force is on the march. They know what is good for you, what's right for you, what's best for you, what'll work for you whether you know it or not, like it or not, want it or not….

Click my name to continue reading this piece.

Edgar Valderrama

I note you have an enlightened stance on Islam, or whatever it is called. I'll be glad when you realize Xtianity is the beam in YOUR eye! (ALL religions suck – the life blood out of humanity)

BS77

The leftist nut cases won't be happy until we all live in Gulags, or something like North Korea…..with leaders like Mao or Pol Pot….then we will be all equally miserable. George Orwell understood these wack jobs….they are like the pigs in Animal Farm.

BS77

PS read Ann Coulter's books…..Read DEMONIC to understand the vast difference between the American and French Revolutions…..great research, great writing. Get educated!!!

alexander

without capitalism, all of them would be standing in mile-long lines to get anything to eat. PROOF:
see Cuba or North Korea. Do NOT like USDA??? GO to Cuba or North Korea.
Inspired by FuBAR Ack

Edgar Valderrama

Don't even know where you live, do you?
Yeah, I like for the USDA to inspect the meat I eat, same as you seem to.
What I don't like is for the country where I was born to ruin itself, its reputation and squander its resources, including its youth in "foreign entanglements."_ (heard the phrase? never hear of "lefty" Eisenhower's warning either?)

And I say 95% Dems don't while only 94% Reps don't. I know I (as well as you) don't.

mrbean

These people are the 2nd generation useful idiot indoctrinates immitating and lead by the mindless lumphen proliteriat indoctrinates of the late 1960s.

Edgar Valderrama

Aren't you afraid reading and quoting demon Marx will get you in trouble with your coreligionists?

http://www.nightmist.us/study/ Axe

… I think Mr. Bean is actually an atheist.

AntiSharia

These mobs are entirely controlled by the White House. It's blackmail. If the GOP doesn't cave into all of his demands he'll unleash these mobs, and blame the GOP for it. If he can't convince the American people to vote for him, he'll terrorize them into it.

trickyblain

lol

Edgar Valderrama

Hell, I don't understand why you righties castigate Obumo so violently when for all intents and purposes he has come out of the closet and is acting like a full fledged Republican dick.

tagalog

Instead of looking at the Occupy Wall Street thing as an attempted replay of the 1960s, something the demonstrators seem to want it to be, I think we righties might find it more useful to compare the OWS thing to the Bonus March of the 1930s. The rebels might also fruitfully be compared with Coxey's Army of 1894. In any event, we don't need just to look at the 1960s; there are other useful analogies that can be considered.

080

There has been a radical outmigration of businesses from New York for some time now. Should such businesses find the occupation of Wall Street to annoying they can find relief by moving out. Since a large part of the revenues of NYC are due to the location of Wall Street the protesters had better know what will fund the city's extensive educational establishment, welfare provisions and funds to finance pensions. They are a threat to all of that. And incidentally NYC will already be 2 billion dollars in the red for next year.

Byron

What ignorance:_What difference is there between a democratic Capitalist regime controlled by false wealth and banks, that thrive mainly through appeasement, and oppression, and that of other oppressive regimes.
Other than the fact the wealth is non-tangible based on false hopes and inflated uncollected interest, and a government based on non-tangible illusionary assets based on loans by a private bank with fictitous assets, that prints money out of thin air, and contractually requires all non free citizens born or not born yet to become part of that false debt through the requirement to obtain a social security number, in order to work, buy, sell, or trade in the US and become a involutary debtor to the corporation THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA run by the private Federal Reserve Bank, and be subjected to the bank and its collectors the Internal Revenue Service, and pay income taxes on the interest on the debt made on fictitous assets, whereby the only true assets are the fruits of your labor, and the spending by the government and the banks far out weigh what is; and the blame is pinned on the people who don't even run it in the first place.

Edgar Valderrama

All you posters above remind me of people spitting straight up and not even realizing why your faces get wet.
I too thought I was a conservative till I grew up and started to extend my field of knowledge and think for myself.
Your proneness to emotional judgements make you vulnerable and extremely manipulable to those that control and direct you.
OPEN YOUR EYES, look around and start reaching your own conclusions. (if you still can) (I stand on my 86 yrs. life experience including WWII combat infantry)
I'll check back to read what kind of culture manifests in your reactions to this only disenting voice within this mutual admiration society.

trickyblain

Kudos, Edgar. Always nice to hear from a member of the greatest generation.

Sorry about the question. I've encountered people on the web who couldn't tell me which outfit they belonged to, after stating that they were a veteran. One fellow was so bad that he couldn't recall his division!

Thanks for your service. My father served under Patton on the counterattack in the Bulge. 3rd Army, of course.

My battalion CO was a Lt. Col. German. Times changed from 1945 to 1968, right?

tagalog

What combat infantry unit did you serve with? What campaign ribbons do you have? Were you awarded the Combat Infantryman's Badge? How long were you in combat? Where?

Or were you what Bill Mauldin (you DO know who he was, don't you/?) called a "garritrooper?" Or modern troops a "Fobbit?" In the Vietnam era, they were called "REMFs."

"Under Patton when I got there" suggests you might have missed Metz, the Bulge, and the Rhine crossing, and joined the 11th IR during the occupation of Bavaria, sometime not long before Patton was reassigned out of Third Army.

If you fought for freedom, why are you so negative about people on a website who post their opinions?

Edgar Valderrama

I trained as a radio operator but ended up as a replacement in a foxhole in the Ardennes in the middle of the Battle of the Bulge; paddled across the Sauer River into the Siegfried Line and also paddled across the Rhine into Germany proper, ending in Austria and finally Czechoslovakia where I had a nice German girl for a couple of weeks before redeploying but was saved from invading Japan by the atom bomb. Six months combat might not seem like much, but It was six centuries for a 19 yr. old grandma's boy.

Edgar Valderrama

I am only negative towards those that disparage the efforts of these poor kids willing to risk the "wrath of the White Shirts" for their beliefs.

Edgar Valderrama

From my discharge: (parenthesis mine) Served 7 1/2 months in England (I only traveled from Liverpool to Southampton and immediately embarked to the continent) France (on the way to the front) Luxembourg (that's where I climbed up and down mountains chasing
Germans) Germany (crossed the Rhine under artillery fire) Austria (met up with the Russians) – bronze battle stars for Ardennes, Rhineland, and
Central Europe Campaigns. Combat Infantryman's Badge award. I had the job of writing recommendations for medals but didn't think of recommending myself as some of the others did. Sufficient? There's more.

paulo

Hey Vet, you left us hanging… if you used to "think I was a conservativ…" and now do not, in what do you believe, and how does that square with what you fought for and what became of the US because you did so?

Edgar Valderrama

Thanks for the reasonable reply and your interest. I'm sort of sorry to admit I've long been a cynic and find it impossible to "believe" in anything. See my "Foxhole Atheist" at my blog: http://edgar-valderrama.blogspot.com/?zx=582fe8ec… where I relate a war experience that turned me away from religion. I was only 19 and even more clueless as to life and reality than I am now. I only "fought" (Battle of the Bulge mostly) to stay alive. Other than preventing I. G. Farben and Hitler from taking us over all we accomplished was to make the world safe for I.B.M. etc. See Eisenhower's warning from his farewell address at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military%E2%80%93ind…

http://RussP.us Russ P.

What the hell is (or was) wrong with IBM?

Edgar Valderrama

Good question. I just used IBM as an example, it being the biggest corporation that came to mind. There's really nothing WRONG with it. I just think we live in a world wide Corporocracy and I'd rather power was in the hands of the people, though I realize the plebes aren't very capable or trustworthy either which is why I say I’m a cynic and don’t “believe” in anything. It is my possibly mistaken idea that I can only believe in what I know, and like Socrates I only know that I know nothing, I therefore “believe” nothing. I use quotes because “believe” might mean different things to different people.

http://RussP.us Russ P.

I believe in a strong free market as free as possible from gov't interference, but I do recognize problems with capitalism as it currently exists in this country. Yes, some executives *are* overpayed. Too many CEOs are ripping off their own shareholders. The answer, I believe, is not to raise their taxes but rather to give shareholders a stronger say in executive pay.

Edgar Valderrama

I doubt a few million in payments to executives who are raking in billions for their Co's is excessive. It is the billions in profits that are withdrawn from the money supply that really count. They are not recirculated but are mostly used to make the corps larger and more powerful. I object to our being ruled by the corps who are so powerful ($ & power are interchangeable) as to have already bought a great part of the world and practically all of its governments.
Does this explain it sufficiently? At least you can see my point of view even if you don't necessarily agree with it. I follow no doctrine or party at all and have quite an extensive background of experience in the US & Mexico including small businesses and relations.

Edgar Valderrama

I just posted an answer to you as a regular post instead of as a reply to you.

Edgar Valderrama

One of my comments was deleted by the administrator. I must have "dangerous opinions" (probably do) I wish I knew what I said that was unacceptable.

Stephen_Brady

No one would do that to you. If you used any language unacceptable to the software, your comment would have been automatically deleted.

Edgar Valderrama

Maybe I pressed the wrong button instead of posting.

Edgar Valderrama

How about this rough idea:
We admit we live in a corporocracy (or whatever you want to call it) and act accordingly, out in the open.
Instead of national currency, our money is called shares. A % of each corporation’s capital is put in a pool and issued as currency. One way to get it into circulation would be to issue a set amount of shares to every newborn, maybe to be delivered upon reaching a certain age (though if it is inheritable this might encourage overpopulation and/or infanticide. All the details would have to be worked out with fail safes, it wouldn’t be as simple as ABC and maybe you can come up with a better idea) Most dealings and transactions would proceed as they do now. Admit or remember our current system involving government and the privately owned Fed is purposefully Byzantine and incomprehensible to the uninitiated. (and to me though I’ve tried to understand it) Also remember our money is 100% fiat money backed by nothing but our willingness to accept it and believe the writing on the bills where it states it is legal tender for all debts. This is my effort at solving what is a real and major problem. Hope you like it.

Dispozadaburka

Professional Paid Protesters.

Maybe once they get paid they can go back to live with their parent's at home and
might even consider paying part of the rent.

The main stream media are making much ado about nothing.
Soros Propaganda…

Wyatt

Old hippies, kids of old hippies, socialists, usefull idiots, anarchists and generally the scum that crawls out from under the rocks. The change they want to bring about is the deconstruction the capitlism that has allowed them to have the highest standard of living in the world even if unemployed because the rest of us take care of their sorry asses and the destruction of the United States.

The involvement of the unions is the height of idiocy, but then again their leaders are the same socialist scum bags who encouraged destruction of the Wisconsin Statehouse and were violent on the docks of Seattle. Destroying the goose that laid the golden egg means nothing to people like Trumka or even that plastic faced ex sspeake rof the house who hasn't had a rational thought in her lifetime.

EchoTangoDelta

Hey Edgar , you're right , comments do get deleted here .As for the mentality ? Just look at the post right above this !!
Today's " alleged conservatives ' are nothing more than the ignorant , led by their noses by the likes of Breitbart , Limbaugh ,and their ilk , malcontents too fiiled with parroted memes to actually see who it is that's batting them over their heads .Or maybe they just don't want to see who it is that's really screwing up this country .They hate anyone who is not "them " , and that overides all common sense and logic . Wind them up or feed them redmeat and they start repeating "Soros " / "Obama " , as if those two men controlled all conspiraciues in the Universe and are guiding any movement that they don't like …."The Bogeymen " ! …how utterly childish .